Winter really isn’t as interesting as the breeding season – but it’s quite interesting. Most resident passerine species have very similar distributions in the winter to those in the summer. That may sound obvious, but it needn’t necessarily be so, need it? Our Jackdaws and Chaffinches could all move to different areas of the country…
Tag: BTO
Bird Atlas – Ireland
Although we all will slip into talking about this fine book as the BTO Atlas it is the Atlas of the BTO, Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and Birdwatch Ireland. And it is the People’s Atlas too! Ireland, north and south of the border, is an interesting place – as revealed many times over in this Atlas….
The Minox challenge results
In the end it was close, but the winner was: the rspb. The total 1352 votes cast were as follows: rspb 311 The Wildlife Trusts 274 Buglife 264 Butterfly Conservation 231 BTO 128 Plantlife 75 MARINElife 69 Well done to the rspb – but well done to all. I hope that being able to…
Sunday Book Review – Bird Atlas 2007-11 by Dawn Balmer et al.
I’ve seen Andy Clements quoted as saying that this is the ‘most important British and Irish bird book for two decades‘ and once or twice thought – well, we’ll be the judge of that! And you must judge for yourself, but I would find it difficult to argue. And not only is this book important,…
The Minox Challenge – you decide
Seven organisations took up the Minox challenge on this blog; they each wrote a Guest Blog on why they should get your support. All made their cases strongly and clearly. Here are the links to the individual blogs: Joanna Bromley/Plantlife Mike Clarke/rspb Andy Clements/BTO Stephanie Hilborne/The Wildlife Trusts Andrew McLeish/MARINElife Matt Shardlow/Buglife Martin Warren/Butterfly…
Minox Challenge – the BTO by Andy Clements
Small is beautiful. I’ve now stopped introducing the BTO as a ‘small’ organisation. With 120 staff, an annual turnover of £5m, 17500 members and around 40,000 wonderful volunteers whose birdwatching creates our data, the numbers speak for themselves. Of course we are small when you compare us to the mighty RSPB, the ubiquitous Wildlife Trusts…
Have you seen a Cuckoo lately?
The BTO Cuckoo-tracking project is just fascinating. ‘Our’ cuckoos are now in central Africa. Have you heard the one about the Scot, the Welshman and the Englishman? Chance is a Scot, a Scottish cuckoo tagged at Loch Katrine. He is in Nigeria at the moment and he followed a very similar route through Europe on…
Just crumbs
I was pleased to see that there is some evidence, from the BTO, that the decline of urban House Sparrows has stopped, paused or slowed. Let’s hope that the House Sparrow is on the up again. This is what I wrote about it for The Independent.
Bird Fair 2013 – Day 2
Had a great day at the Bird Fair yesterday – didn’t go to a talk, hardly looked at a stand, but talked to lots and lots of people. It was easy to get in and the weather was wet, then hot, then windy – I left before the plague of locusts arrived. The main topics…
BBS
The BBS report covering 2012 is out – here is the link. The results: the results are the most important part of the report. You should look at them, but here are some of the things that struck me, mostly concerning the long-term trends rather than the 2011-12 changes: there are a lot more greylag…